Politics

Jeanne Shaheen: On Obamacare, ‘Everybody Was A Deciding Vote’

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New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen was just trying to take the focus off her own vote for Obamacare during Thursday night’s debate, but she ended up inadvertently providing a talking point against every Senate Democrat running for reelection in November.

Republican Senate hopeful Scott Brown was taking aim at Shaheen for her pivotal vote for Obamacare in 2010 when Shaheen jumped in indignantly and made things easy for him.

“She was the deciding vote,” Brown began to say of the health-care law.

“There were 60 of us,” Shaheen interrupted, “Everybody was a deciding vote.”

“Excuse me,” Brown countered. “Every Democrat voted, and yes — every Democrat was the deciding vote, for a terrible bill that’s crushing businesses.”

The health-care law passed by 60 votes — the slimmest margin possible. Had just one Democrat changed their mind, Obamacare wouldn’t be the law of the land today.

GOP candidates in Senate races across the country have been using the 60-vote threshold against incumbent Democrats. Brown’s been making the case that Shaheen was the deciding vote for the health-care law for months; the same line of reasoning has been used against Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu and Colorado Sen. Mark Udall.

A majority of the American public at large disapproves of Obamacare, and the same goes in New Hampshire as well. An October 10 poll by the University of New Hampshire found that just 32 percent of New Hampshire adults approve of the health-care law, while 52 percent oppose it.

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